Podcast: Episode 6

The sixth episode of the Ruling Passions Project’s podcast is now live on the podcast page, and also on spotify, apple, google podcasts, amazon podcasts, audible and probably most other podcast places.

you can Subscribe to the podcast here

Becky Stothard (she / her) works as a study skills tutor, with a background in secondary teaching of Science and PSHE. She was diagnosed autistic as an adult.

In this episode we talk about patterns of behaviour, detail,  anatomy, science, history, recipes and knitting, whilst also going off on a lot of other interesting tangents!

Links to some of the things discussed by Becky are available here: https://shu.padlet.org/dscb18/ruling-passions-podcast-6-becky-stothard-5e7kfqt8tlsozvcu

Transcript below:

Podcast: Episode 5

The fifth episode of the Ruling Passions Project’s podcast is now live on the podcast page, and also on spotify, apple, google podcasts, amazon podcasts, audible and probably most other podcast places.

you can Subscribe to the podcast here

Dr. Nick Walker is a queer, transgender, flamingly autistic writer and educator known for her foundational work on the neurodiversity paradigm and Neuroqueer Theory, and her contributions to the emergent genre of neuroqueer speculative fiction. She is co-author of the urban fantasy webcomic Weird Luck, and author of a handful of short stories and the essay collection Neuroqueer Heresies. As Managing Editor of the worker-owned indie publishing house Autonomous Press, she has co-edited and contributed to multiple volumes of the annual Spoon Knife neuroqueer lit anthology. Dr. Walker is senior aikido instructor at the Aiki Arts Center in Berkeley, California, and a professor of psychology at California Institute of Integral Studies.

In this episode we talked about akido, world building, story and character creation, collaboration, comics, autism, trans experience, the comics of Matt Howarth and Nick’s literary works, including the Weird Luck web comic (available here: https://weirdluck.net/comic/1-1-0-the-swiftcorp-incursion/)

Special thanks to Robert Chapman who let me record this episode in their spare room!

There is an (unedited!) video version of this episode available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=8&v=c2w9Z7WMC0w&feature=youtu.be

Links to some of the things discussed by Nick are available here: https://shu.padlet.org/dscb18/i3zo84abx2yn13wo

Transcript available below:

Podcast: Episode 4

The fourth episode of the Ruling Passions Project’s podcast is now live on the podcast page, and also on spotify, apple, google podcasts, amazon podcasts, audible and probably most other podcast places!

you can Subscribe to the podcast here

Bille pictured talking into a microphone in a cafe.

[Content warning] this episode includes mention of trauma, challenging early autistic experiences, mental health, food / eating and dysphoria.

There is some background noise in this episode as Billie was in a cafe. There is also some swearing.

In this Episode I talk to Billie Jo Gibson (he / they) who is a National Equity, Diversity and Inclusion officer for the Northern Idependence Party and works in a hospitality job. Billie was diagnosed autistic when they were four years old. 

In this episode we talk about early diagnosis, friendships, masking, growing up, Speech and Language therapy, forced social interaction and growing up as an autistic child, self-acceptance, gender identity / being trans, hyperfocus, childhood special interests, politics, class, the cost of living crisis, issues with the Labour Party, Northern Independent Party, Democratic Socialism, Disability and PIP assessment, trauma and mental health assessment, Grand Theft Auto and Liverpool / Scouse Culture.

Additional multimedia links and transcript available below…

Third Call for Participants

I have been very fortunate to speak with several autistic adults about their ‘ruling passions’. Before I close this stage of data generation I would especially like to speak to any autistic people of colour about their lived experience in relation to what are often called ‘special interests’. Participants must be age 18+ and autistic (self dx or otherwise).

Participation is via zoom interview, text-based conversation or questionnaire.

There is also a concise summary of the project here: https://rulingpassions.wordpress.com/participant-information/

If you are interested, please use the link below. Thank you!

Participation is now at capacity at this time

Second Call for Participants

There is not much room in a tweet, so I am directing people here!

I am seeking autistic individuals (age 18+, formal dx OR self dx) to participate in this small scale, qualitative study around what are often referred to as autistic ‘special interest’. Participation is via either interview or questionnaire (dependent on participant preference / requirements). I am now particularly interested in perspectives from autistic people who identify as being from any of the following communities:

• Non-Speaking
• A member of a minoritised ethnic group
• Women
• LGBTQ+
• having a learning disability

Information for participants is here (including a quick summary of the project): https://rulingpassions.wordpress.com/participant-information/

More detailed information about the project is here (including information about aims, methods and outputs): https://rulingpassions.wordpress.com/more-info/

You can read about me (the researcher on this project) here: https://wordpress.com/page/rulingpassions.wordpress.com/72

Thank you for your time.

Chris

Interviews ongoing

Having put out a call for participants on Twitter (below) I have been really pleased with the response, and am currently interviewing the first round of participants. Thank you to those who have expressed an interest – your input is very much appreciated. It has been great to talk in depth about other people’s interests and passions.

I am seeking participants for my research project around autistic special interests. You can find the project website here. If you are interested and an autistic adult (self dx included), please register as a participant. https://t.co/e5myMYTe5R #AskingAutistics Please RT 👍

— Chris Bailey (@drchrisjbailey) August 4, 2021

Once I have conducted the first round of interviews I will put out another slightly more targetted call for participants in September.